ROURKELA: The draft electoral roll published under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) 2026 for the Sundargarh Parliamentary constituency has thrown up anomalies, leaving voters worried over getting the errors rectified before the August 4 deadline.
A reality check of the draft roll for Booth No-11 in Chhend Housing Colony under Rourkela Assembly constituency revealed glaring discrepancies despite the colony having properly numbered residential quarters.
Sample this. The name of octogenarian Bharati Sinha, a resident of house no- LCR-114 who died on July 21, 2025, continues to figure in the draft roll at serial number 248 with an incorrect house number.
Several voters also found mistakes in their names, addresses and other particulars. Reena Sinha (57) said she and her husband Randhir reside at LCR-111, but the draft roll lists them as residents of quarter no-186.
She alleged that no polling official visited their house during the enumeration despite repeated wait. “We eventually contacted the booth level officer (BLO), collected the forms ourselves and submitted them,” she said.
Under the Election Commission’s guidelines, BLOs are required to physically verify voters through up to three visits. If a voter is not found, they must make enquiries with neighbours and paste an information notice before recommending deletion of the name. However, several residents alleged that BLOs skipped visits to a large number of households.
Similar complaints have emerged from other parts of Sundargarh district, with affected voters expressing concern over correcting the anomalies within the stipulated timeframe. Many said they were unaware of the online correction process, while accessing BLOs for offline corrections has proved difficult as they are either unavailable or inaccessible.
Voters also complained that online corrections require visits to common service centres, adding to their expenditure and inconvenience.
Sinha said she was unsure how to rectify the incorrect entry and apprehended she has to visit the BLO for the exercise. Left uncorrected, inaccuracies could create problems while linking the document with other essential services in future, she said.
According to Sundargarh district election office, the constituency had 14,64,547 electors before the SIR exercise. Enumeration forms were received from 13,79,547 voters. During the revision, 31,142 voters were categorised as deceased, 41,206 as permanently shifted, 4,499 as absent, 7,149 as doubly enrolled and 696 under the ‘others’ category.
Rourkela MLA and former minister Sarada Prasad Nayak alleged that many BLOs did not visit all households and that the revision exercise had shifted the burden of enrolment and corrections onto voters.
He said the draft electoral roll was not easily accessible and many voters were unaware of how to check it on the Election Commission’s website. Nayak claimed he received several complaints regarding anomalies and said he would take up the matter with the Election Commission.
District election in-charge and Sundargarh ADM (revenue) S K Patnaik admitted that anomalies had surfaced in the draft roll. He advised voters seeking corrections to submit Form 8, while those whose names were missing could apply afresh through Form 6.
